Amid a chilling non-fungible token (NFT) winter, Web3 media companies are not immune to the frosty conditions, including publication NFT Now which announced job cuts on Monday.

I have difficult news to share: pic.twitter.com/ufcknaboEO
— ALΞJANDRO 🍄 (@AlejNavia) July 31, 2023

Alejandro Navia, president of NFT Now, posted a tweet sharing that the company had scaled too quickly in the bull market and now had to reduce staff at the company.

“As we are building the business for the long term, we must adapt to changing market conditions,” said Navia. “Given the current climate, it is clear that this pace of growth was unsustainable and we over-hired.”

Navia shared that as President, he “[takes] full ownership of this mistake,” and aims to continue to support its partners and tokenized media business.

Web3 media or tokenized media publications aim to solve the problems associated with Web2 media firms by selling NFTs that create a community around their content creation. In March, NFT Now released its Now Pass token, which quickly sold out in March for 0.25 ETH, or $500 each – raking in $1.1 million in total revenue.

The layoffs reflect a different sentiment than Navia shared as recently as Saturday, when Navia posted a tweet sharing that NFT Now has thus far been able to “change 100s of artists' lives, help onboard world-class brands to web3, keep millions of people educated and informed and build new technology to keep the truth authenticated and accessible.”

I love that through @nftnow we’ve been able to change 100s of artists lives, help onboard world-class brands to web3, keep millions of people educated and informed and build new technology to keep the Truth authenticated and accessible.

Grateful.

However there is still a lot…
— ALΞJANDRO 🍄 (@AlejNavia) July 29, 2023

Different drama affected another founder of NFT Now over the weekend. The CEO and Editor-in-Chief Matt Medved’s Twitter was hacked in a SIM swap – a common malicious tactic to steal a person’s phone number. He shared a tweet Sunday that he had regained access to his account.

It’s disappointing to see this when you run a project and have a large following after all of the SIM swaps the past two months.

Myself and numerous others have made posts warning people they would be targeted and to switch to an Authenticator app or Yubikey.

At what point is…
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) July 31, 2023

NFT Now has undergone other internal structural changes recently. In May, NFT Now co-founder Sam Hysell announced he would be stepping down from his role – without sharing any details why, or what his next move might be.

Web3 nft now NFT Media Layoffs

Cam Thompson

Cam Thompson was a Web3 reporter at CoinDesk. She is a recent graduate of Tufts University, where she majored in Economics and Science & Technology Studies. As a student, she was marketing director of the Tufts Blockchain Club. She currently holds positions in BTC and ETH.